Obama moves on taxes in latest "cliff" counter-proposal

President Obama gave up Monday on his demand for higher taxes on households earning $250,000 and upped it to $400,000 while embracing smaller cost-of-living Social Security raises in a counter-proposal to House Speaker John Boehner meant to narrow differences and forge a pre-Christmas "fiscal cliff" deal.

Mr. Obama and Boehner met for nearly an hour in the Oval Office on Monday and sources familiar with the talks released specific details of the White House proposal.

Boehner aides said it brought the two sides closer but said a deal was not at hand.

"Any movement away from the unrealistic offers the President has made previously is a step in the right direction, but a proposal that includes $1.3 trillion in revenue for only $930 billion in spending cuts cannot be considered balanced," said Brendan Buck, a Boehner spokesman.

Other senior Republican aides told reporters on Capitol Hill they are not rejecting the latest White House offer, but they also said that there is not parity or balance in the White House plan and substantive issues remain unresolved. One senior aide said the issues that they are talking about are not technically difficult to resolve, but they were wary the differences might be fundamental issues that are difficult to resolve.

But the depth, specificity and fine-grain nature of discussions over policy, tax revenue and spending cuts belied the tough rhetoric from the two sides in the negotiation. Signs point to a deal before the New Year's fiscal cliff deadline -- and possibly an announcement as early as Wednesday.

Play Video

Boehner's "fiscal cliff" offer brings optimism to Capitol Hill

Play Video

Boehner's "fiscal cliff" concessions come with a price

Talks picked up genuine momentum on Friday when Boehner agreed to higher income tax rates on households earning $1 million and above. Previously, Boehner opposed all income tax increases. He also gave in on raising the debt ceiling, a vote some Republicans wanted to use as leverage against Obama in 2013. Both gestures, top White House aides said, broke the logjam.

Mr. Obama responded with big concessions of his own on Monday. He offered a $400,000 income threshold for a Clinton-era top tax bracket of 39.6 percent. Boehner had proposed that tax rate for millionaires and a total 10-year tax revenue figure of $1 trillion. Obama wants $1.2 trillion in new revenue. Both sides look for hundreds of billions in new revenue in 2013 through a tax reform process that eliminates some tax deduction and closes loopholes.

The president also wants a two-year ceasefire on raising the debt ceiling. Boehner offered one year.

In addition to disagreement on income levels for tax rates or some other way to get more revenue, the two sides have not set in stone an actual tax reform process. It sounds like they are talking about creating a new sequester-like mechanism in 2014 as incentive for both tax reform and entitlement reforms.

Speaking of entitlements, Boehner also asked the White House to increase the eligibility age for Medicare but Mr. Obama again refused. This difference could loom large as Republicans want structural cost-saving changes in Medicare in exchange for raising income tax rates.

Mr. Obama has given ground on cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security and other federal benefits, but is trying to shield Medicare. Democrats have warned Obama they might bolt if he folds on raising Medicare's eligibility age. They have been less emphatic about cost-of-living adjustments.

Other components of the president's counter-proposal include:

• $1.2 trillion in new income tax revenue with a 39.6 percent (up from 35 percent) on income of $400,000 or more.
• $1.2 trillion in spending cuts divided this way: $800 billion in cuts; $290 billion in interest savings due to lower deficits; $130 billion in cost-of-living adjustments - - with specific protections to preserve increases for economically disadvantaged beneficiaries. Because changing cost-of-living adjustments would also affect where people fell in various tax brackets, this move would raise $90 billion
• The $800 billion in cuts would come from $400 billion in savings to health care entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid; $200 billion in better tax revenue collection, increased financial transaction fees and reduced federal employee benefits.
• $200 billion in domestic discretionary -- annual spending on basic government functions - divided equally between defense and non-defense programs.
• At least $50 billion devoted next year to infrastructure spending and more in latter years - figures still subject to negotiation.
• A one-year extension of unemployment insurance benefits.

Both sides have already agreed to create long-term solutions for the annual ritual of adjusting the Alternative Minimum Tax, the reimbursement formulas for Medicare physicians and a grab-bag of pro-business tax breaks.

Obama also did not ask for an extension of the temporary 2 percent payroll tax - a priority for some Democrats.

Funding for Superstorm Sandy will be handled separately from the emerging fiscal cliff package. The Senate is considering the administration's $60.4 billion request and the White House expects swift, bipartisan approval.

CBS News Capitol Hill producer Jill Jackson contributed to this report.

Read More..

Conn. Kids Laid to Rest: 'Our Hearts Are With You'

Visibly shaken attendees exiting the funeral today for 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of 20 children killed in the Connecticut school massacre last week, said they were touched by a story that summed up the first-grader best.

His mother, Veronique, would often tell him how much she loved him and he'd respond: "Not as much as I [love] you," said a New York man who attended the funeral but was not a member of the family.

Noah's family had been scheduled to greet the public before the funeral service began at 1 p.m. at the Abraham L. Green & Son Funeral Home in Fairfield, Conn. The burial was to follow at the B'nai Israel Cemetery in Monroe, Conn. Those present said they were in awe at the composure of Noah's mother.

Rabbi Edgar Gluck, who attended the service, said the first person to speak was Noah's mother, who told mourners that her son's ambition when he grew up was to be either a director of a plant that makes tacos -- because that was his favorite food -- or to be a doctor.

Outside the funeral home, a small memorial lay with a sign reading: "Our hearts are with you, Noah." A red rose was also left behind along with two teddy bears with white flowers and a blue toy car with a note saying "Noah, rest in peace."

CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video

The funeral home was adorned with white balloons as members of the surrounding communities came also to pay their respects, which included a rabbi from Bridgeport. More than a dozen police officers were at the front of the funeral home, and an ambulance was on standby at a gas station at the corner.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep. and Sen.-Elect Chris Murphy and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, all of Connecticut, were in attendance, the Connecticut Post reported.

Noah was an inquisitive boy who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically, The Associated Press reported. His twin sister, Arielle, was one of the students who survived when her teacher hid her class in the bathroom during the attack.

CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.

The twins celebrated their sixth birthday last month. Noah's uncle Alexis Haller told the AP that he was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak. He called his twin sister his best friend.

"They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said.

The funeral for Jack Pinto, 6, was also held today, at the Honan Funeral Home in Newtown. He was to be buried at Newtown Village Cemetery.

Jack's family said he loved football, skiing, wrestling and reading, and he also loved his school. Friends from his wrestling team attended his funeral today in their uniforms. One mourner said the message during the service was: "You're secure now. The worst is over."

Family members say they are not dwelling on his death, but instead on the gift of his life that they will cherish.

The family released a statement, saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."

"He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life," the statement said. "Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."

Jack and Noah were two of 20 children killed Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when 20-year-old Adam Lanza sprayed two first-grade classrooms with bullets that also killed six adults.

Read More..

'The idea we live in a simulation isn't science fiction'

If the universe is just a Matrix-like simulation, how could we ever know? Physicist Silas Beane thinks he has the answer

The idea that we live in a simulation is just science fiction, isn't it?
There is a famous argument that we probably do live in a simulation. The idea is that in future, humans will be able to simulate entire universes quite easily. And given the vastness of time ahead, the number of these simulations is likely to be huge. So if you ask the question: 'do we live in the one true reality or in one of the many simulations?', the answer, statistically speaking, is that we're more likely to be living in a simulation.

How did you end up working on this issue?
My day job is to do high performance computing simulations of the forces of nature, particularly the strong nuclear force. My colleagues and I use a grid-like lattice to represent a small chunk of space and time. We put all the forces into that little cube and calculate what happens. In effect, we're simulating a very tiny corner of the universe.

How accurate are your simulations?
We're able to calculate some of the properties of real things like the simplest nuclei. But the process also generates artefacts that don't appear in the real world and that we have to remove. So we started to think about what sort of artefacts might appear if we lived in a simulation.

What did you discover?
In our universe the laws of physics are the same in every direction. But in a grid, this changes since you no longer have a spacetime continuum, and the laws of physics would depend on direction. Simulators would be able to hide this effect but they wouldn't be able to get rid of it completely.

How might we gather evidence that we're in a simulation?
Using very high energy particles. The highest energy particles that we know of are cosmic rays and there is a well-known natural cut off in their energy at about 10²⁰ electron volts. We calculated that if the simulators used a grid size of about 10^-27 metres, then the cut off energy would vary in different directions.

Do cosmic rays vary in this way?
We don't know. The highest energy cosmic rays are very rare. A square kilometre on Earth is hit by one only about once per century so we're not going to be able map out their distribution any time soon. And even if we do, it'll be hard to show that this is conclusive proof that we're in a simulation.

But can we improve our own simulations?
The size of the universe we simulate is a just fermi, that's a box with sides 10^-15 metres long. But we can use Moore's Law to imagine what we might be able to simulate in future. If the current trends in computing continue, we should be simulating a universe the size of a human within a century and within five centuries, we could manage a box 10²⁶ metres big. That's the size of the observable universe.

How have people reacted to your work?
I gave a lecture on this topic the other week and the turnout was amazing. Half of the people looked at me as if I was disturbed and the other half were very enthusiastic.

Profile

Silas Beane is a physicist at the University of Bonn, Germany. His paper "Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation" has been submitted to the journal Physical Review D

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Read More..

Royal Thai Air Force Air Chief Marshal Prajin Juntong visits S'pore

SINGAPORE: Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Prajin Juntong is in Singapore on a three-day introductory visit.

He called on Senior Minister of State for Defence Mr Chan Chun Sing at the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) on Monday afternoon.

ACM Prajin had earlier called on Chief of Air Force Major-General Ng Chee Meng after inspecting a Guard of Honour.

ACM Prajin will co-officiate the opening ceremony of Exercise Cope Tiger on Tuesday. Exercise Cope Tiger is an annual trilateral exercise conducted by the air forces of Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

MINDEF said ACM Prajin's visit underscores the close and long-standing defence ties shared between Singapore and Thailand.

The Republic of Singapore Air Force and the RTAF interact regularly through exercises, professional exchanges, and courses. These interactions have bolstered the friendship and mutual understanding among the personnel of the two air forces, said MINDEF.

- CNA/jc

Read More..

NFL Week 15: The best photos

The Jacksonville Jaguars observe a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Connecticut school shooting before their game against the Miami Dolphins at Sun Life Stadium on Sunday, December 16. Check out the action from Week 15 of the NFL and then look back at the best photos from Week 14.

Read More..

Two Topeka, Kan., police officers slain outside grocery store

Updated 2:05 a.m. EST

TOPEKA, Kan. Two Topeka Kansas police officers were fatally shot outside a grocery store Sunday while responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle, authorities said.

Topeka Police Chief Ronald Miller called the shootings of Cpl. David Gogian and Officer Jeff Atherly "unspeakable." He said both Gogian, 50, and Atherly, 29, were shot in the head by a gunman who opened fire on them within minutes of their arrival to investigate the vehicle.

"It's clearly beyond words. It's unspeakable almost about why this happens and why this is happening in America at this stage in our history," Miller said.

Police were searching for a 22-year-old man believed to have been the one who fired on the officers from the vehicle. He remained at large Sunday night. Miller didn't know the motive for the shooting but said the suspect has a criminal history, though he wouldn't elaborate.

A third officer who went to the scene to check on the vehicle was not injured in the shooting.

Gogian and Atherly were taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead.

The call about the vehicle came shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday, police said. Gogian and Atherly had arrived as backup for another officer when someone in the vehicle they were investigating started shooting.

"I don't believe they had any idea this situation was going to go this direction as quickly as it did," Miller said.

A witness told CBS Topeka affiliate WIBW-TV he heard three gun clips emptied, then heard another series of shots.

The station says a neighbor told the Topeka Capital-Journal he heard several shots fired.

He said there was more than one person in the vehicle, which later was found outside a house about 10 blocks from the grocery store. Officers searched the home but didn't find the shooting suspect.

The chief declined to say why officers were investigating the vehicle and why it was considered suspicious.

A small crowd met for a candlelight vigil Sunday night outside police headquarters after hearing about the shooting. As the group gathered, police officials announced to reporters nearby that the officers had died.

Gogian started with the Topeka Police Department in September 2004. Atherly had been with the department since April 2011.

Miller said Gogian was a retired military serviceman. It wasn't immediately clear what branch of the military. He has a son who's also a Topeka police officer.

"He had spent his life in service to his country and in the city of Topeka," the chief said.

Meanwhile, Atherly was "just getting started" in his career, he said.

The last time a Topeka officer was killed in the line of duty was 2000, and it's been longer than that, since 1995, that one was fatally shot on the job.

Read More..

Obama: Nation Faces 'Hard Questions' After Shooting

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would do everything in his power to "engage" a dialogue with Americans, including law enforcement and mental health professionals, because "we can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change."

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama: 'Newtown You Are Not Alone' Watch Video

Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting: Remembering the Victims Watch Video

The president was not specific about what he thought would be necessary and did not even use the word "gun" in his remarks, but his speech was widely perceived as prelude to a call for more regulations and restrictions on the availability of firearms.

The grieving small town hosted the memorial service this evening as the the nation pieces together the circumstances that led to a gunman taking 26 lives Friday at the community's Sandy Hook Elementary School, most first graders.

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside your body all of the time, walking around," he said, speaking of the joys and fears of raising children.

"So it comes as a shock at a certain point when you realize no matter how much you love these kids you can't do it by yourself," he continued. "That this job of protecting kids and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, with the help of a community, and the help of a nation."

CLICK HERE for Full Coverage of the Tragedy at Sandy Hook

Read More..

How human biology can prevent drug deaths

Thousands of people die from adverse effects of medicines that have been tested on animals. There is a better way, say geneticist Kathy Archibald and pharmacologist Robert Coleman

ADVERSE drug reactions are a major cause of death, killing 197,000 people annually in the European Union and upwards of 100,000 in the US. Little coverage is given to such grim statistics by governments or pharmaceutical companies, so patients and their doctors are not primed to be as vigilant as they should be, and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) remain seriously under-recognised and under-reported.

The €5.88-million EU-ADR project, which published its final report in October, showed that it is possible to spot these reactions earlier by applying data-mining techniques to electronic health records. These techniques could, for example, have detected the cardiovascular risk signals of arthritis drug Vioxx three years before the drug was withdrawn in 2004 - saving many tens of thousands of lives. But invaluable as such systems are, it would be even better to detect risk signals before a drug reaches humans, thus saving even more lives.

Currently, 92 per cent of new drugs fail clinical trials, even though they have successfully passed animal tests. This is mostly because of toxicity, which can be serious and even fatal for the people taking part in the trials. For example, in 2006, six people enrolled in a UK trial of the drug TGN1412 were hospitalised after developing multiple organ failure. Many clinical trials are now conducted in India, where, according to India's Tribune newspaper, at least 1725 people died in drug trials between 2007 and 2011. Clearly, there is an urgent need for better methods to predict the safety of medicines for patients as well as volunteers in clinical trials.

At the patient safety charity, Safer Medicines, we believe this goal is most likely to be achieved through a greatly increased focus on human, rather than animal, biology in preclinical drugs tests. New tests based on human biology can predict many adverse reactions that animal tests fail to do, and could, for example, have detected the risk signals produced by Vioxx, which in animal studies appeared to be safe, and even beneficial to the heart.

These techniques include: human tissue created by reprogramming cells from people with the relevant disease (dubbed "patient in a dish"); "body on a chip" devices, where human tissue samples on a silicon chip are linked by a circulating blood substitute; many computer modelling approaches, such as virtual organs, virtual patients and virtual clinical trials; and microdosing studies, where tiny doses of drugs given to volunteers allow scientists to study their metabolism in humans, safely and with unsurpassed accuracy. Then there are the more humble but no less valuable studies in ethically donated "waste" tissue.

These innovations promise precious insights into the functioning of the integrated human system. Many are already commercially available, but they are not being embraced with the enthusiasm they merit.

Pharmaceutical companies would make much greater use of them if governments encouraged it, but inflexible requirements for animal tests is a major deterrent. Ever since the thalidomide birth-defects tragedy, animal testing has been enshrined in law worldwide, despite the irony that more animal testing would not have prevented the release of thalidomide, because the drug harms very few species.

So how well have animal tests protected us? Many studies have calculated the ability of animal tests to predict adverse reactions to be at or below 50 per cent. In 2008, a study in Theriogenology (vol 69, p 2) concluded: "On average, the extrapolated results from studies using tens of millions of animals fail to accurately predict human responses." And a recent study in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (vol 64, p 345) shows that animal tests missed 81 per cent of the serious side effects of 43 drugs that went on to harm patients.

It is hard to understand why governments defend a system with such a poor record, or why they are dismissive of new technologies that promise increased patient safety while decreasing the time and cost of drug development, not to mention the savings to healthcare systems from fewer adverse drug reactions. Proposals to compare human-based tests with animal-based approaches have been strongly supported by members of the UK parliament. The Early Day Motions they signed were among the most-signed of all parliamentary motions between 2005 and 2006, 2008 and 2009, and 2010 and 2012.

Safer Medicines has put these concerns to the UK Department of Health and the prime minister - to be told that "human biology-based tests are not better able to predict adverse drug reactions in humans than animal tests".

It is a tragedy that so many suffer or die through the use of inadequately tested drugs when tests based on human biology are readily available. Yet governments continue to mandate animal tests, despite the lack of a formal demonstration of fitness for purpose, and a growing global realisation among scientists that animal toxicity tests are inadequate and must be replaced.

In its 2007 report, Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century: A Vision and a Strategy, the US National Research Council called for the replacement of animal tests: "The vision for toxicity testing in the 21st century articulated here represents a paradigm shift from the use of experimental animals... toward the use of more efficient in vitro tests and computational techniques." To its credit, the US government is at least working on initiatives to hasten this. The UK government, however, still denies there is a problem. How many must die before it listens?

Kathy Archibald is director of the Safer Medicines Trust. She is a geneticist who worked in the pharmaceutical industry.

Robert Coleman is a pharmacologist with pharmaceutical industry experience. He is now a drug discovery consultant and adviser to the trust

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Read More..

Resolution of stalled upgrading works at Rivervale Plaza one key priority: DPM

SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has said that one of the priorities he wants to tackle for Punggol East residents is the resolution of upgrading works at Rivervale Plaza.

Works there have been delayed because the contractor has gone bust.

Mr Teo, who is also the anchor minister for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Sunday.

The Deepavali celebration is the second community event Mr Teo attended over the weekend, following the resignation of Punggol East MP Michael Palmer over an extramarital affair.

Mr Teo noted that one of the concerns of residents is the upgrading works at Rivervale.

He said his team of MPs will continue discussions, started by Mr Palmer, with the Housing and Development Board, residents and shop owners, to resolve the problem.

Mayor Teo Ser Luck has been appointed caretaker MP for Punggol East.

Mr Teo Chee Hean said: "We've always looked after the residents (of Punggol East) as a larger Pasir Ris-Punggol family. So I know quite a lot of the grassroots leaders here. I've been here many times also, with Mr Teo Ser Luck as well. So we will continue looking after residents."

DPM Teo has said he will attend the ward's Meet-the-People session on Monday night.

- CNA/ir

Read More..

Pearlman: I think Bobby Petrino is slime

Bobby Petrino was named head coach at Western Kentucky, months after being embroiled in scandal at University of Arkansas

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Bobby Petrino was named the new football coach at Western Kentucky this week


• Hiring came just months after he was fired from Arkansas amid scandal


• Jeff Pearlman says, sadly, this is no surprise in big-time college sports


• He says the vast majority of players are ultimately hurt by the behavior of coaches and administrators

Editor's note: Jeff Pearlman is the author of 'Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton.' He blogs at jeffpearlman.com. Follow him on Twitter.

(CNN) -- I have a dog named Norma.

She is a small beige cockapoo who barks at the mailman.

I would not trust Bobby Petrino to watch her.

Jeff Pearlman

I also would not trust Bobby Petrino to take my car in for a tire change. I would not trust Bobby Petrino to deposit my Aunt Ruth's Social Security check. I wouldn't trust him to clean my bowling ball, shop for a Christmas ham, change a twenty for two tens, tell me the time or recite the proper lyrics to Blind Melon's "No Rain."

This is not because I am a particularly untrusting person.

No, it's because I think Bobby Petrino is slime.

In case you missed the news, two days ago Western Kentucky University held a press conference to announce that Petrino, undeniably one of the nation's elite football minds, had agreed to a four-year, $850,000 per year deal to take over the Hilltoppers.

With nearly 400 giddy sports fanatics in attendance, Petrino, standing alongside Todd Stewart, the school's athletic director, spoke of honor and loyalty and love and redemption. The ensuing press release, issued by Western Kentucky's sports information department, was straight out of Disney: 101. It made Petrino sound like a cross between Vince Lombardi, Martin Luther King and Gandhi; God's gift to young men seeking to better themselves.

Petrino fired as Arkansas head football coach

What it failed to mention—and what the school desperately wants everyone to fail to mention—is that Petrino may well be the least ethically whole man in the, ahem, ethically whole-deprived world of Division I collegiate sports.

Why, it was only seven months ago that Petrino, at the time the University of Arkansas' head coach, was riding his motorcycle when he crashed along Highway 16 near Crosses, Arkansas.

When asked by school officials to explain what had happened, he failed to mention that, eh, also on the bike was Jessica Dorrell, a 26-year-old former Razorbacks volleyball player who worked as the student-athlete development coordinator for the football program. It turned out that Petrino, a married father of four, was not only having an affair with Dorrell (who was engaged at the time), but was a key voice on the board that hired her for the position when she wasn't even remotely qualified.

During an ensuing university investigation, it was determined that Petrino made a previously undisclosed $20,000 cash gift to Dorrell as a Christmas present.

Ho, ho, ho.

To his credit, Jeff Long, the school's athletic director, defied the wishes of every pigskin-blinded Razorback fan and fired Petrino. In a statement, he rightly wrote that, "all of these facts, individually and collectively, are clearly contrary to character and responsibilities of the person occupying the position of the Head Football Coach—an individual who should serve as a role model and a leader for our student-athlete."

Now, ethics and morals and character be damned, Bobby Petrino has returned, spewing off nonsense about second chances (Ever notice how garbage men and bus drivers rarely get the second chances we are all—according to fallen athletic figures—rightly afforded as Americans?) and learning from mistakes and making things right.

Western Kentucky, a school with mediocre athletics and apparently, sub-mediocre standards, has turned to a person who lied to his last employer about the nature of an accident involving the mistress he allegedly hired to a university position she was unqualified to hold. Please, if you must, take a second to read that again. And again. And again.

Bobby Petrino, holder of a Ph.D. in the Deceptive Arts (he also ditched the University of Louisville shortly after signing a long-term extension in 2007, and quit as coach of the Atlanta Falcons 13 game into his first season later that year. He informed his players via a note atop their lockers), will be the one charged with teaching the 17- and 18-year-old boys who decide to come to Bowling Green about not merely football, but life. He will be their guide. Their compass. Their role model.

Bobby Petrino and social media prove a bad mix

Sadly, in the world of Division I sports, such is far from surprising. This has been a year unlike any other; one where the virtues of greed and the color of green don't merely cloak big-time college athletics, but control them. In case you haven't noticed, we are in the midst of a dizzying, nauseating game of Conference Jump, where colleges and universities—once determined to maintain geographic rivals in order to limit student travel—have lost their collective minds.

The University of Maryland, a charter member of the ACC, is headed for the Big Ten. The Big East—formerly a power conference featuring the likes of Syracuse, Georgetown, St. John's and Connecticut—has added Boise State, San Diego State, Memphis, Houston, Southern Methodist and Navy. Idaho moved from the WAC to the Big Sky, Middle Tennessee State and Florida Atlantic went to Conference USA, the University of Denver—a member of the WAC for approximately 27 minutes—joined the Summit League. Which, to be honest, I didn't even know existed.

Rest assured, none of these moves (literally, nary a one) were conducted with the best interests of so-called student-athletes in mind. New conferences tend to offer increased payouts, increased merchandising opportunities, increased exposure and increased opportunities to build a new stadium—one with 80,000 seats, 100 luxury boxes, $20 million naming rights, $9 hot dogs and the perfect spot for ESPN to broadcast its Home Depot pregame show.

Why, within 24 hours of quarterback Johnny Manziel winning the Heisman Trophy, Texas A&M was hawking Heisman T-shirts for $24 on its website (Or, for a mere $54.98, one can purchase his No. 2 jersey).

Percentage of the dough that winds up in Manziel's pocket? Zero.

After another spectacular exit, Petrino eyes football return

That, really, is the rub of it all; of Petrino's crabgrass-like revival; of coaches bounding from one job for another (even as players can only do so after sitting out a year); of Rutgers moving west and San Diego State moving east and athletic department officials moving on up (to a penthouse apartment in the sky); of $54.98 jerseys.

It's the athletes ultimately getting screwed.

Sure, for the 0.5% of Division I football players who wind up in the NFL, the deal is a sweet one. The other 99.5%, however, are mere pawns, sold a dizzying narrative of glory and fame and lifelong achievement, but, more often than not, left uneducated, unfulfilled and physically battered.

They are told a coach will be with them for four years—then watch as said figure takes a $2 million gig elsewhere but, hey, only because it was right for him and his family.

They are told they will receive a great education, then find themselves stuck on a six-hour flight from California to Newark, New Jersey. They are told that these will be the greatest years of their life, that the college experience is a special one, that only the highest of standards exist.

Then they meet their new coach: Bobby Petrino.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jeff Pearlman.

Read More..